1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for optically inspecting presence or absence of an antigen-antibody reaction in a specimen or a type of an antigen-antibody reaction in a specimen by measuring a photon echo from the specimen.
2. Related Background Art
An antigen-antibody reaction has been used in inspection for various diseases, utilizing its extremely unique specificity. Heretofore, various methods have been developed for inspection of the antigen-antibody reaction.
For example, there are methods using an antibody labelled with a fluorescent material (a kind of probe) (fluorescent antibody). The methods are classified into (1) a direct method in which an antibody is preliminarily labelled with a fluorescent material (to obtain a labelled antibody), and then the labelled antibody is mixed (reacted) with an antigen; and (2) an indirect method in which an antigen is mixed (reacted) with an antibody (primary antibody), and then the mixture is further mixed with a secondary antibody labelled with a fluorescent material.
A specimen as so mixed (reacted) is observed with a fluorescence microscope, and presence or absence of an antigen-antibody reaction or a type of an antigen-antibody reaction is determined from its fluorescence amount or its fluorescence pattern. Further, for the case that an antigen is reacted with a corresponding antibody to agglutinate, there is a method in which presence or absence of an antigen-antibody reaction is determined by examining its reaction pattern, i.e., a degree of the aggregation.
However, in the conventional methods as described above, an observer observes the specimen with the naked eye or through a microscope. Therefore, there are such problems that judgement can hardly be made and that objective judgement cannot be made, because the judgement depends on an individual to make it.